Memorable Melodies: Bob-omb Battlefield from Super Mario 64

Song: Bob-omb Battlefield

Game: Super Mario 64

Composer: Koji Kondo

This week I decided to continue the trend of putting up songs I like to whistle to. My last summer of high school and during my college breaks I would work at my uncle's convenience store. It sounds cool, but I mostly sorted cans of stale beer. I don't know if you know what stale beer smells like, but I can assure you that it's heinous! One of the songs that I took to whistling all the time while performing the gross task was Bob-omb Battlefield. 

There's something that tends to stick with me about songs that appear near the beginnings of games. For those of you who are unfamiliar Super Mario 64 sees Mario trying to rescue princess peach by jumping into the paintings of her castle to collect stars. The first world Mario jumps into is Bob-omb Battlefield, which is where this classic jam plays. It's very upbeat, which is totally at odds with the bob-ombs falling down all around Mario as he tried to traverse the mountain. Mario is like that though. Tons of awful stuff happens, but he's always down for it. He needs to rescue the princess, even if he has to beat up a bunch of bombs with faces.

I never owned my own copy of Super Mario 64, so I would always play at a friend's house. Most of the time I would have my file erased for some reason, so I would always start right back at Bob-omb Battlefield. Classic.

Now I can't stop whistling this song again. I did this to myself.

Memorable Melodies: Main Title from Banjo Kazooie

Song: Main Title (Banjo and Kazooie Theme)

Game: Banjo Kazooie

Composer: Grant Kirkhope

I felt bad that I didn't include much talk about Rare Replay in the August edition of Game Time, so here's some Rare goodness. This week it's all about the introduction of Banjo Kazooie.

There's something about Rare games that's magical and fun. It's hard to describe, but their games are full of a whimsy that most other developers can't even come close to. A large part of that comes from the art style and music. As we saw a few weeks ago Dave Wise is an excellent composer, but Rare also likes to hire Grant Kirkhope for many of their projects. 

Kirkhope has a very unique style, which is very easily discernible. What I like about the intro to Banjo Kazooie is that it shows all the signature Kirkhope instruments. His style has a whole lot of banjos. xylophones, and any woodwind instrument you can think of. I mean seriously, Mumbo busts out a Saxophone! 

While I like almost all the music in Banjo Kazooie, this intro theme in particular strikes an emotional chord with me. It takes me back to the days of video game rental stores and my fascination with everything on the Nintendo 64. Sadly, both of those things are gone now, but that's the time this song reminds me of. Even better, this song personifies Rare to me. It has style and whimsy you won't find anywhere else. 

Podcast Episode 4

For the fourth episode I thought it would be best to bring everyone down a bit. Recently I've been noticing how becoming what is theoretically an adult has changed my video gaming habits. If you want to hear about that for about a half hour then I suggest you listen to this. Enjoy!